I have severe organization problems.
I have been trying to get rid of stuff and have managed several garbage bags full.

One problem I can't seem to tackle is my kids books. It some how doesn't feel right getting rid of any. Most of them are actually books from my childhood that my Mom passed on to us.
There are so many they are all over the house!

Well this is not the answer I thought I would get here I don't feel so bad about not being able to part with them now.

90% of them are hand me downs and not replaceable/common. They are books from the early 80s for the most part.

We own a few Eric Carle book that we actually just bought because my newly 3 yo wants to read them 20 times a day

I need a way to organize them though. Most are thin paperbacks so you can't see the title without taking the whole book out.

Make rain gutter bookshelves all around the room! Or spice racks work (like the cheap wood ones from ikea) I will get links to pictures in a bit. I have gotten rid of over 200 kids books and don't feel bad. I kept a lot too but I kept ones that are favorites. We have a library across the street if we need more

Books are a weakness of mine as well. It's easier to get rid of my own books but I loved books as a kid and read everything in the house. It's one thing I'd rather have too many of. Well, that and purses.

I know that's not very helpful or very minimalist. I've purged some kids' books, though. Get rid of anything that's in rough shape, that is "outgrown," that you just plain don't like (or doesn't fall in with your family's values), etc. Of those, if there's anything sentimental then store it away with other keepsakes.

If you're still in the early stages of purging, I would focus your energy on bigger things. Although I would definitely also make sure that you at least organize the books that you do have, and make sure your kids are putting them back when they are done. My kids are still young, but my son (2 years old) is able to put his books back.

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Mommy to Grant (July 2010) and Greta (July 2012)

I purged 2,920 items in 2012 and 2,014 items in 2013.2,014 items in 2014?

Books are a weakness of mine as well. It's easier to get rid of my own books but I loved books as a kid and read everything in the house. It's one thing I'd rather have too many of. Well, that and purses.

I know that's not very helpful or very minimalist. I've purged some kids' books, though. Get rid of anything that's in rough shape, that is "outgrown," that you just plain don't like (or doesn't fall in with your family's values), etc. Of those, if there's anything sentimental then store it away with other keepsakes.

If you're still in the early stages of purging, I would focus your energy on bigger things. Although I would definitely also make sure that you at least organize the books that you do have, and make sure your kids are putting them back when they are done. My kids are still young, but my son (2 years old) is able to put his books back.

I had a hard time with this too, but after we purged, I didn't regret it. My kids read more now, because they aren't overwhelmed with so many choice. Before, I'd end up with pile of books on the floor because they'd pick one up and throw it down, or read a page or two and throw it don....it was just too much choice. Now they have few enough to focus. (To make this even easier on them, we pick 1-2 books every day for each of them to have out and replace yesterdays choices. They also have about 3 seasonal (per season) books out at all times).

I just counted and our total comes to 20 books (plus seasonal that are stored away). To be fair, 3 of them are compilations. (dr. suess, grimms complete works, and shel silverstein). This seems to be the perfect amount for us!

(on a side note, I also find that when my toddler rips books, I can tape it up and keep it good as new, instead of become daunted by so many books and random pages ripped out that I ended up throwing them all out. But that may not be a common problem....I just have an awful book destroyer over here.)

I've worked on books too. At any given time, we usually have less than 2 feet of shelf space of books. We always have more in the closet, but each time I go to swap out, I find books that had been stored for 2 months that I don't care for anymore. Like PPs said, get rid of books that you don't like reading. I've purged almost all the books with Disney and tv characters, most of the dollar store books that are poorly worded, anything with poor cartoonish illustrations. I always ask if this is something I want my kids to spend time learning. I've been wanting to do rain gutter book shelves too. The other things you could do is get magazine holders/rack for the walls or free-standing, so they can see and flip through books, like this